March 2014

The rage is to compare everything in creation to a business. But be careful when doing so with America’s public libraries. They are civic and service institutions, not profit-making corporations. A major caveat!

Just the same, in a library context, I was intrigued when President Obama once again singled out Costco for its success. It’s delighted shareholders in recent years while paying hourly workers around $21 per hour on the average. Granted, Costco isn’t your typical retail chain. It focuses on upscale markets (and bulk purchases). By contrast, public libraries need to serve everyone, especially the poor. That’s yet another caveat.

Still, in Costco, I see a few lessons for public libraries in the digital era:

Read the full article here.

In its latest study, Pew set out to determine what types of people use and value public libraries. It compared highly engaged, “library lovers” and “information omnivores” to those who have never used a library, people dubbed “distant admirers” and “off the grid.” According to Pew, 30 percent of Americans are in those first two categories. Another 39 percent are considered to have “medium engagement” with libraries, even though only half of those have used a library in the past year.

Full piece on NPR

From The East Bay Express (Alameda Cty, CA):

Library administrators are discarding older books in bulk, prompting a backlash from longtime staff members.

Library administrators have ordered staff to discard books in bulk. With increased funding for materials this fiscal year, managers are making room for newer books and as a result have been trashing older ones in mass quantities, staff members said. The practice, they said, has been rushed and haphazard — and not in line with the standard guidelines for “weeding,” the term librarians use to describe the process of moving books out of collections. In Albany, thousands of good books that could be donated or given away are instead ending up in the trash, the employees said. They noted that while this policy is especially widespread at their branch, it appears that this careless discarding is happening across the Alameda County Library system.

“Everyone is amazed by the amount of stuff going to the garbage bins,” said Dan Hess, a children’s librarian in Albany. He has worked at that branch for four years and has been an employee of Alameda County Library for fourteen years. “It’s like forty years and forty different brains thinking what should be in the library [are being] swept away in two months,” he said. “We’re having this infusion of new money and materials that are coming very fast into the library. It’s pushing us to change the criteria for what we are discarding.” Hess said that managers have directed staffers to effectively remove most books bought before 2001, with little regard to the content, condition, or other factors librarians would typically take into consideration. “All you have left is the new. To me, that is not a library.”

Via Mental Floss.

Simply because she loved to read, Lotte Fields bequeathed $6 million to the New York Public Library after her death, the library announced on Wednesday.

Mrs. Fields, a New Yorker who died last summer at 89, inherited her wealth from her husband’s family, who were wool merchants.

“One of her great joys was spending the weekend reading with her husband,” said Irwin Cantor, Ms. Fields’s executor, in a statement. “Her donation shows just how much Lotte loved books and how important she felt it was to support her fellow book lovers.” Because Ms. Fields had been a modest – though regular – donor to the library in the past, Tony Marx, the library’s president, said the library was “astounded” by her bequest.

“But we are deeply honored to pick up her mantle and promote the joy of reading,” he added. At Ms. Fields’ request, the library will evenly divide the funds between its branch libraries and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on 42nd Street.

Let’s hope they don’t apply the donation to destroying the classic Bryant Park Main Library.

Listen to host Manoush Zomorodi* of NPR determine people’s opinions about Google Glass (affordability, issues of privacy). Have you tried it out? What do you think? I saw a few folks wearing Glass at ALA-MW.

Here’s New Tech City’s website and here’s South by Southwest’s website.

(*Finally figured out how Ms. Zomorodi’s name is spelled).

There is an announcement in the March 11, Federal Register for – Notice of public hearing; request
for comments.

The U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services is holding a public hearing, ‘‘Libraries and Broadband: Urgency and Impact,’’ to examine the need for high speed broadband in America’s libraries. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is charged with advising the President and Congress about the library, museum and
information service needs of the American public.

DATES: Public Hearing: April 17, 2014,
9:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. Requests to
Participate: Submit requests to
participate at the meeting by March 24,
2014. Written Comments: Written
comments received by May 1, 2014 will
be part of the record.

See full notice here.

Colleges Need Free Speech More Than Trademarks
http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Need-Free-Speech-More/144907/
Registrations and rights-claiming of this sort are unwarranted in higher education. Trademarks are meant to be vehicles for reducing consumer confusion, not rewards for brand-building. Because trademark registrations signify rights to commercial uses of words, rights holders and the public often mistakenly think they confer ownership of words themselves. This misperception tends to promote risk aversion and stifle otherwise fair expression. Determining when a mark is confusingly similar to another, or distinguishing impermissible commercial uses of a term from fair uses of it, is complicated.

New York State Librarian, Bernard A. Margolis, announced today the soft launch of DaybyDayNY (http://daybydayny.org/), an early literacy website designed to engage families and very young children in reading, learning and public libraries.

DaybyDayNY is an important component of Ready to Read at New York Libraries, a new statewide program from the New York State Library designed to help library staff further enhance and expand their early literacy services and programs.

DaybyDayNY is a virtual calendar with content that changes every day. This unique setup gives families with young children numerous daily activities and a story to read together. The story, provided each day by One More Story (http://www.onemorestory.com/), is in the form of an eBook that includes original music and sound effects, produced by former Sesame Street Music Director, Robby Merkin. In addition, the website includes monthly activities, storytelling and nursery rhyme videos, rhymes for young children, craft activities for children and their caregivers, a link to “Find Your Public Library,” a New York State map of museums with activities for young families, health information, and reading lists. The website is designed to help parents and caregivers increase their young child’s cognitive skills and have fun together at the same time.

We hope libraries and systems will promote the use of this website to all young families and caregivers. Information about linking from your library or system website to DaybyDayNY and promoting the website with community members and partners is available at (http://daybydayny.org/) and scroll to the bottom of the page to click on “Share This Site.”

New York State Librarian, Bernard A. Margolis, announced today the soft launch of DaybyDayNY (http://daybydayny.org/), an early literacy website designed to engage families and very young children in reading, learning and public libraries.

DaybyDayNY is an important component of Ready to Read at New York Libraries, a new statewide program from the New York State Library designed to help library staff further enhance and expand their early literacy services and programs.

DaybyDayNY is a virtual calendar with content that changes every day. This unique setup gives families with young children numerous daily activities and a story to read together. The story, provided each day by One More Story (http://www.onemorestory.com/), is in the form of an eBook that includes original music and sound effects, produced by former Sesame Street Music Director, Robby Merkin. In addition, the website includes monthly activities, storytelling and nursery rhyme videos, rhymes for young children, craft activities for children and their caregivers, a link to “Find Your Public Library,” a New York State map of museums with activities for young families, health information, and reading lists. The website is designed to help parents and caregivers increase their young child’s cognitive skills and have fun together at the same time.

We hope libraries and systems will promote the use of this website to all young families and caregivers. Information about linking from your library or system website to DaybyDayNY and promoting the website with community members and partners is available at (http://daybydayny.org/) and scroll to the bottom of the page to click on “Share This Site.”

The New York State Library thanks the South Carolina State Library for providing the web structure and expertise that allowed us to model DaybyDayNY after the DaybyDaySC website. Additional help was provided by the Library of Virginia and the Idaho Commission for Libraries, both of which have created their own DaybyDay websites. In addition, the expertise of the Public Library System Youth Services Consultants has been an invaluable resource in perfecting the site for use statewide.

DaybyDayNY is funded through the Federal Library Services and Technology Act, with funds awarded to the New York State Library by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Questions about DaybyDayNY may be directed to Karen Balsen, Library Development Specialist, Division of Library Development, New York State Library at [email protected] or 518-486-2194.

Students, faculty decry Penn plan to cut math and science libraries

A plan by the University of Pennsylvania to cut back on two of its branch libraries – one for engineering and the other for math, physics, and astronomy – has yielded an outcry from students and professors who say the books are critical to their studies and research.

Read more at:
philly.com/philly/education/20140311_Students__faculty_decry_Penn_plan_to_cut_math_and_science_libraries.html